Andrew's 40th birthday!

 

Yesterday Andrew celebrated his 40th birthday!  This felt really big, and it is!  We wanted to do things to make this birthday stand out and be a little extra special.  Since Andrew signed up for the Tour de Tucson 100 mile race a few weeks ago 40 miles on his 40 birthday became a natural milestone and challenge to push him towards his 100 mile goal in April.  Sheldon Hassell, a friend from church joined Andrew on his birthday ride where they finished in about 3 hours and 40 minutes!  Much faster than the 4 hour estimate.  So proud of Andrew!  Sheldon also signed up for the Tour de Tucson for his first time.

The night before Andrew's birthday he opened his presents little early.  Up till this week he didn't have any official cycle clothes so I got him these cycle leggings, and this shirt, and cycle glasses.  The glasses are Andrew's favorite of the three.  Apparently on his ride his wheel kicked something up that would have hit his eye if it weren't for the glasses.  They're UV protection and adjust to light with minimal frames so basically all around good glasses for cycling.  The leggings have a learning curve or at least need some time to get used to since Andrew's not used to tight leggings with a diaper, I mean padding. ;)  The shirt is great for layering especially because the zipper goes all the way down the front, not just halfway like similar shirts.

For lunch Andrew wanted to grab a free meal at Joe's Farmgrill, my favorite breakfast place.  Lunch is good too but nothing tops their breakfast!  We had our little sidekicks, Beatrix and Rupert with us for lunch.  Bea went down for a late nap after this and was pretty cranky the rest of the day. ;)  Still worth it.

For dinner we went to Grimaldi's again, just like my birthday last week.  Afterwards we took the kids to McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park for the seasonal lights.  This time of year the park is all lit up and you can take a train ride at night and go on the carousel.  It felt so special because even though we've been to this park before, we're never been there for the light experience.

Surprisingly a lot of the kids preferred the carousel ride to the train ride.  Bea called it the Frozen horse.  She loved it!  Avery, Zara and I were on horses all in a row, and Andrew, Rupert, and Bea were together with Elliot helping Bea like you can see above.  Love seeing the kids help each other.  So glad Andrew had a good birthday.